Bankrupt businessman seizes Moscow bank, then surrenders

MOSCOW – Moscow police say a man who claimed to have a bomb seized a bank in the center of Russia's capital and took four people hostage, but he later surrendered peacefully.

After an hours-long standoff Wednesday evening, police say the man, identified by Russian news organizations as a 55-year-old bankrupt businessman, released the hostages and gave himself up to police.

In video broadcast on Russian state television, he is shown inside a Citibank branch and hanging from his neck is a box wrapped in yellow tape that he claims is an explosive device. He says: "I don't want to rob your bank, I want to seize it."

Police said the bomb turned out to be a fake.

For several hours, police cordoned off the bank and blocked traffic on the street.